Sunday, October 23, 2005

Fixer-Upper: Snowshill Manor





Here are some more pictures from our Saturday excursion. This is the day we left Max home to rest. It's a good thing, too, because there was quite a bit of walking and going up and down stairways... so he wouldn't have faired very well.

The first photo is that of the Snowshill Manor. There are a lot of "manor houses" around the countryside. These homes are where the owner of the surrounding land lived and the village people were the ones who served him and worked the land. Most of these manor houses are hotels these days, but this particular one is a museum.

Snowshill Manor was built in stages from the 1400 - 1600's, but was bought (as a fixer-upper) in the early 1900's by a man named John Paget Wade. He was a rather eccentric architect and artist who totally filled the manor house with his collection of things from around the world. His collection ranged from huge Oriental furnishings to tiny bone carvings from French prisoners. The manor house was used solely for his collection and he actually lived in a primitive home off to the side of the manor.

The second photo is the view of the countryside from up at the manor house. After leaving the manor house, we drove out to an old medieval tower overlooking the countryside. We got there just in time for sunset. This tower looks like a castle should be attached but, apparently, was just used as a watch tower from high atop the hill. The last picture is of me standing very near the tower. The views are fabulous from this vantage point.

Remember, you can click on any photo to enlarge.

That's it for today,
Carol

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh boy, these photos are straight outa some of my novels. Everything I would hope to see and I love the green lush countryside. Besides the interesting rock walls, I noticed fences that appeared to have been built before the hedges that enclose them? They were in the picture of Snowhill Manor.

Peggi

Anonymous said...

nice, comfy place you got here :)..